Other images displayed by Trump during meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa were false or misleading

The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.

“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

    • HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      I once got into an argument with a south African on reddit about white genocide. Even over there it’s a political issue, but the way he and many people describe it makes it seem like if you even set foot there as a white person you’ll get mugged.

      I was saying I lived there for six months, spent a lot of town in the townships where it was only black people, and I legit never once was harmed. Yeah it’s dangerous but like, they act like they’ve never been in a dangerous neighborhood in the states.

      But because I was an American sharing this perspective and they were South African, I got relentlessly shamed by redditors. To be fair I get where they’re coming from. If you have no clue about the issue and someone from another country trying to say something said about that persons own country is BS, it doesn’t look good. But it’s literally a political topic and he was coming at it from the extreme right perspective. Because I’m an American, like a dozen people took away from that thread that white genocide is real.

      • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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        10 hours ago

        I am no stranger to Africa but - I blend in. White genocide is not a thing. They took land from the original inhabitants who were not white. They should leave, go back to Holland or wherever they came from apparently they will fit in well with Maga USA. Those white farmers can absolutely get fucked. And Trunp too.

        • TheRealKuni@midwest.social
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          10 hours ago

          They should leave, go back to Holland or wherever they came from

          They didn’t take land. Their ancestors did. They were born and grew up in South Africa.

          And yes, they benefitted from an absolutely horrible system of apartheid.

          But telling them to “go back where they came from” is racist AF, just like it is when said to a brown person in the States. Don’t be that guy. They are where they came from.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            4 hours ago

            And it’s always land, isn’t it. Inheriting some land, in this day and age, is worth much less than a good education.

            Inheriting industries is much more problematic and can be solved, completely without reference to skin colour, by taxation. To fund the previously mentioned education.